Nicole.k.buchanan

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Nicole.k.buchanan

Sharing the highs and lows of Type 1 Diabetes through illustration.

11/14/2022

Another year, another post about how insulin shouldn’t cost more than most peoples rent. Diabetics shouldn’t have to choose between a medication that quite literally keeps them alive(literally, I will die without it, and no, I can’t eat less sugar) and paying their bills. Happy World Diabetes Day to all my diabuddies, may we never stop fighting-the disease, and the price gouging.

10/27/2022

25 years ago today, I was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. I was 4 years old at the time. I don’t remember much of it. I remember being in the hospital and getting poked a lot. I remember my family coming to visit me in the hospital. I remember my uncle brought me a giant teddy bear. I don’t remember what it felt like to be sick. And I don’t remember what it was like to live life without diabetes. Life with diabetes is all I’ve ever known. It’s been thousands of minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years all combined. It’s been a lot of trial and error. It’s been a lot of needles and cannulas, and doctors appointments and subsequent diagnoses. It’s been losses and even some gains. But despite all of that, I’ve still lived a life I love. I’ve still done most of the things I’ve always wanted to do. I still became a mom and built a family. I still have the ability to wake up every day and live life as I choose. And for that I’m grateful. I hate this diagnosis most days, but I genuinely look forward to fighting the hell out of it for another 25+ years. Happy diaversary to me! 💙

10/23/2022

One group I will ALWAYS advocate for is , they never accept donations from big pharma, and go out of their way to raise awareness and support the movement. You can donate through the link in my bio, or through my stories!

10/19/2022

Last night my blood sugar was high all night after eating dinner. It was one of those dinners that was actually barely any carbs, but for some reason my body was just like “nah, we’re gonna confuse you tonight!” So then I wake up at 2:30 in the morning to a low alert and my blood sugar is 49, leaving me to stay awake for an hour and a half trying to bring it up enough to go back to sleep. It’s nights like that that leave me feeling like I’m just literally drowning in the hassle of diabetes. It left me feeling hungover without even drinking and like I could barely function this morning. I don’t even share these things for pity, because pity isn’t gonna get me anywhere. But I do share these things in hopes that someone else will see it and realize that last night they weren’t alone on the diabetes rollercoaster. I was right there next to them.

10/17/2022

I’m aaaaactually more of a Coke Zero kinda girl but nonetheless, my day couldn’t be complete without my Diet Coke and a lil insulin 🤣

10/13/2022

Diabetes can be such an isolating disease, because the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of people will never understand what it’s like to live with it. Only 9.5% of the world population has it (and honestly that’s a LOT higher of a percentage than I would have ever guessed). Before finding this community online, I truly felt so alone in my journey with diabetes. We can teach, share, and educate our friends and loved ones every day when it comes to the disease, but that will never equate to what it feels like to actually live with it. This community has truly made me feel so seen and reassured when it comes to the ins and outs of everyday life with diabetes. So next time you feel alone, just know that you aren’t.

09/28/2022

Sometimes when I scroll through instagram I see one perfect cgm graph after another and I think to myself, “HOW are they doing this?! How do they always have that straight line, and how is their A1C so good?!” And I get discouraged. I get down on myself. I feel like I’m failing myself and my body, and then the burnout hits. But then I have to remind myself that those graphs I see are just a small, teeny tiny little glimpse into that persons management. Maybe they spent the last year with blood sugars all over the place and constant corrections and days, weeks, months of trial and error to get to where they are. They more than likely experienced burnout themselves, and more than likely will again at some point. And that’s okay. We have to remind ourselves that social media isn’t the entirety of someone’s life. We all struggle in our day to day management and all we can do is continue pushing through.

09/21/2022

When I first started on a pump in 2007 I thought, "This is it. I finally have the tools to make my management perfect." Fast forward to 2012, and I HATED using a pump. I had so much built up tissue on my stomach that every site change was bringing me to tears. I was using multiple infusion sets every change, having extreme anxiety and my blood sugars were horrible. I thought I had to deal with it though. I thought there was no going back to shots after the pump. But after telling my doctor what was going on he said, "Having a bad relationship with your pump isn't gonna do you any good, let's switch back to the pens until you're comfortable again." And I realized in that moment, it's okay to change the way I manage my diabetes. I used shots for 8 years after that and was super hesitant to try a pump again because of the anxiety I had from my last pump. I made the switch to a Tandem 3 years ago, and it's been truly life changing. All of this goes to say-it's okay if you wanna change things. It's okay if you wanna take a pump vacation and switch to shots. It's okay if you wanna switch from one pump to another. It’s okay if you wanna take a complete break from technology all together. We have to be mindful of what’s working best for us, each day, in the life we’re living right now.

09/15/2022

Sharing this again bc today I caught my tubing on my door and ripped the entire thing out right after I had just started a new site 🙃🥴 like I really really love the technology but dang does it like to test me🤣

09/05/2022

Sometimes I have to remind myself that diabetes isn’t a race. There is no finish line and no one really comes out a winner. I’ll catch myself some days trying to rush through things and my blood sugar definitely takes a toll on those days. It’s okay to slow down, sit down, and just take it easy. After all, diabetes will always be there waiting for you.

08/29/2022

Sometimes I have to remind myself that diabetes isn’t necessarily gonna get “easier”. The days are never the same with it, and one thing may work one day and then the next day it doesn’t work at all. Nothing about is is easy. And it’s definitely not a forgiving disease. It doesn’t care if it kept you up at night and it doesn’t care if it ruins your entire day. But what it does do, is continue to make us stronger. More resilient. More ready to put up the fight day after day.

08/22/2022

Why is it that we’re so hard on ourselves when we know how difficult our job actually is? We quite literally hold our pancreas in the palm of our hands everyday and try to take place of an actual organ inside of our bodies. It’s like the CEO telling the entry-level position to take over all of their responsibilities with no training 🫠 I often have to remind myself that I can’t expect perfection. Im doing the best I can with the training, tools, and experience I have, and some days will be better than others.

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Indianapolis, IN

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http://Instagram.com/Nicole.k.Buchanan

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